Improvement in treating wood and lumber to dry and season it



J. F. GYLES. Improvement in Treating Wood and Lumber to dry I and Season it.

Patented-June 25,1872.

UNITED STATES JAMES F. GYLES, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN TREATING WOOD AND LUMBER TO DRY A ND SEASON lT.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 128,387, dated June 25, 1872.

Specification describing an Improved Process of 'Desiccating and Seasoning Lumber, invented by JAMES F. GYLEs, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois.

The invention relates to methods of removing the moisture which saturates the woody fiber of lumber, and which requires so great a length of time by the ordinary process of evaporation. Many have availed themselves of the well-known law that evaporation is hastened in proportion as the temperature is increased, and have applied heat in a variety of ways, but this requires not only buildings of great ,dimension and expensive construction, butavery large consumption of fuel. Hence, this is a very expensive process, and open to many serious objections. Others, again, have tried screw, hydrostatic, and other modes of compression of the fiber. This was done when the wood was inclosed in molds, as described in a patent granted to 1?. Shaw in 1860; but as this force acted simultaneously at all points upon the lumber compressed, exudation of the moisture, except to a very limited extent, was effectually prevented, and the longitudinal sapchannels of the wood were mashed together at all points. The moisture, therefore, not being expelled, the condensation was only temporary, since, as soon as the force was'removed the fibers quickly resumed, to a great degree, their original places. Hence these parties were compelled to use heat in addition, and subsequent to pressure. After many experiments and a large outlay of time and money I have discovered a process that overcomes all these objections and renders the expensive heat process entirely unnecessary.

I have recognized and availed myself of thefact that the natural mains in which the sap runs from root to top, and the reverse, and to which all the lateral pores are but minute feeders, are longitudinal, andmaybeutilized to carry 0d the life-blood of the trunk. In order to utilizethese channels I introduce pressure only on a line at right angles to these channels, and keep the lumber in motion under this line of pressure until I have forced the sap to travel down these channels from one end to the other.

The drawing represents two pairs of rolls, one pair placed immediately in front of the other.

A A are the compressing-rolls, andB B the carrier-rolls. The latter assist in drawing and feeding forward the lumber, which has been previously sawed into some convenient shape. C represents a plank or piece of lumber, flat on two sides, and sawed with the grain thereof, in the usual manner. As soon as the rolls bite upon the plank they compact, condense,

and close together the longitudinal sap-chan nels at the front end, and, as this end is gradually moved along, and the pressure made to change to lines further and further back on the plank, the sap is compelled also to recede and finally to exude from the rear end, as represented at D in the drawing. I have found the actual result to exceed my most sanguine expectations, and the lumber to be completely desiccated by this natural process. The condensation is permanent. The lumber no longer exhibits the slightest tendency to expand, as, when the moisture is removed partially, it no longer has a tendency to rapidly absorb atmospheric moisture like kilndried or steamed lumber, and it is ready, as soon as desiccated, to be worked up for any purpose required.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The process of desiccating lumber by applying pressure on lines at right angles to the fiber, and graduallychanging said lines of pressure by keeping the lumber in motion, as shown, exemplified, and described.

JAMES F. GYLES.

Witnesses:

SoLoN (J. KEMON, THos. D. D. OURAND. 

